Photo: Rich Polk/Getty Images for MTV
Sydney Sweeney wants to be a young mom. in a Hollywood Reporter profiles, she says that the industry stigmatizes young moms, and, “I was worried that, if I don’t work, there is no money and no support for kids I would have.” Like all moms, young or otherwise, Sweeney wants to provide for her children, even if they’re still hypothetical. But she’s candid about how her life as a double-Emmy-nominated actress and it-girl is more financially taxing than it would appear to outsiders. “If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that,” she says to THR. “I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help.” Surely HBO paychecks afford a lifestyle immune from rising gas prices? “They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals,” Sweeney notes. “The established stars still get paid, but I have to give 5 percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, 3 percent or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month, and that’s more than my mortgage.”
Can someone who is good at the economy please help her budget this? Her hypothetical future family is dying! Let’s crunch some numbers. In January, Sweeney bought her first house in Westwood for $3 million, which was actually $305,000 over asking. Rough calculations on a
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Financial institutions want to shed their cutthroat image for a more cuddly one. To do that, many are enlisting agencies or hiring in-house talent to manage external branding.
Driving the news: Edelman launched a boutique agency, Edelman Smithfield, to focus on reputation management for investment firms, private equity and venture capital funds, banks and crypto.
By the numbers: This is an extension of previous attempts to appear softer and more trustworthy — which is an uphill battle, according to Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer.
- Of those surveyed, 56% distrust financial services and 70% believe the system only favors the rich.
What they’re saying: Edelman Smithfield CEO Lex Suvanto believes communications is an effective tool for companies to increase transparency by explaining their priorities and impact in communities.
- “People don’t trust what they don’t understand, especially in the financial services industry,” Suvanto told Axios.
- Christine Anderson, Blackstone’s head of corporate affairs, hopes better marketing can combat the “1990s and 1980s” stereotype of institutional investors and admits, “We probably haven’t done a good job of sharing good stories of how we operate our company.”
What we’re watching: Sharing positive stories isn’t the only selling point. The uptick in shareholder activism and macro shifts in innovation — paired with a volatile market — further support the need for strategic communicators.
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Spotify (SPOT) surged on the heels of its Q2 earnings report with shares climbing more than 13% on Wednesday after the company reported a beat on both revenue and monthly active users.
But one analyst says the stock surge was an “overreaction” given the platform’s profitability struggles.
“While we believe there remains material user growth left for Spotify we highlight that many investors question whether Spotify will ever be able to generate significant lasting profitability,” Pivotal Research analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak said in a new note.
The analyst added that the “concentrated power of the music labels & competition not necessarily focused on generating profitability” underscores that sentiment, explaining that, although he sees Spotify hitting its gross margin targets (30% to 35%) in the long term, the market is focused on short-term profitability as recession fears loom.
Wlodarczak reiterated his Hold rating on the stock, and lowered his price target from $110 a share to $105.
In addition to reporting a wider-than-expected loss in the second quarter, Spotify’s reported gross margins disappointed at 24.6%, missing estimates of 25.2% as the streamer spends big on non-music content.
Spotify has “been a public company for a while, and they’ve really never been profitable,” CFRA analyst John Freeman previously told Yahoo Finance.
He signaled that the platform’s sky-high costs for its podcast deals (which included a reported $200 million multi-year licensing contract with Joe Rogan) can only go so far.
“The problem with paying Joe Rogan, or whoever, a lot of money is that
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